


How to Get to the Fairytale Ending

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: One Shot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-01-02
Updated: 2007-01-02
Packaged: 2019-01-23 13:44:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12508744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: [Fic Exchange '06] Lily knew letting James Potter introduce her to alcohol–Head Boy though he might be–was a bad idea. Yet…it was Christmas. People behaved strangely on Christmas all the time.





	How to Get to the Fairytale Ending

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

**Merry Christmas, ChristyCorr!**

 

Lily Evans always did her best to see the silver lining in _every—single—situation._ She was known for it among her housemates and friends. She was known for it among her teachers. She was known for it at home.

_Everyone,_ Lily frequently thought, _is known for something._

It hardly mattered to her that she was known for being an optimist, when most people were known for being amusing, exciting, funny, glamorous, confident, loving, kind, sexy…oh, no—it hardly mattered to her. _Optimistic,_ she often said, _was quite fine as a description._

“I don’t understand how you’re dealing with this, Lily,” her acquaintance Benjy Fenwick said to her on Christmas. “ _And_ dealing with being in the library on your birthday!”

“Shut it,” Lily said, not looking up from her list of students still at school for the Holidays. She frowned as she skimmed the list of Gryffindors. “There’s a lot of Gryffindors staying—do you know why?”

Benjy rolled his eyes. “Who cares? Can we please talk about your situation—it’s quite rare for _you,_ actually.”

“Hey! I really resent that, Fenwick.” Lily glanced around the rather empty library and really wished he would go away. They weren’t close friends—not by a long shot. She wanted to talk to a girl about this whole mess, not Benjy Fenwick, sixth-year Gryffindor womanizer extraordinaire.

“It’s completely true, Prudey McPrudence—”

Lily yanked out her wand and pointed it at him. “Take that back, you stupid prat.”

Benjy held up his hands. “Fine, Lily. Not a _prude,_ per se…an extreme virgin, maybe?”

“That bollocks doesn’t work with me, Benjy. I don’t care what I have and haven’t done, or who I have or haven’t done what I have or haven’t done with.”

Benjy pursed his lips, considered her statement, and finally grinned. “You mean _haven’t_.”

“I mean have and haven’t. I never lie. I never hide things.”

Benjy laughed aloud. The aging librarian sent a searing glare in their direction. Lily gave her the finger as soon as her back was turned and Benjy bit back a grin. “Well aren’t I quite glad I sat here today!”

“Yes, because all the other tables are _so_ full,” Lily returned snidely, waving her hand at the empty tables surrounding them. She went back to perusing her list and delivered her next insult without looking up at him, still stung by his comment. Whether she was a virgin or not ( _not)_ was irrelevant to her current situation. “You just don’t want to spend time with your latest flavor of the week, because let’s face it—it’s Friday and just two days before the beginning of a new week! You’re getting bored.”

Benjy did not answer and Lily finally looked up after a full minute sans Benjy’s witty comeback. He was staring at her with the most hurt… _oh, damn._

“I didn’t _mean_ that in a bad way, Benjy! Don’t you dare look so wounded!”

He still did not answer her. He frowned instead. Finally, he spoke. “I see we’ve pinpointed the reason you never let me become a better friend.”

Lily sighed. “Fine, Benjy.” She set aside her list. “Let’s talk about my _situation_ , as you so kindly put it.”

“Oh, you wouldn’t rather discuss it with your real friends?”

“No, because they’re a tad too invested in this whole…thing.”

“That’s bollocks, and you know it.” Benjy was grinning wildly. Lily rolled her eyes.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do, really,” said Lily. “I’m not used to more than one boy at once.”

“Right now it’s technically no boys, as I’ve heard it.”

Lily nodded noncommittally. “True. It’s _tech_ nicallypo _ten_ tiall _y_ two boys.”

Benjy waggled his eyebrows at her. “That’s not too much for the _prude_ in you to handle, is it?”

“It’s not two boys like _you_ , Fenwick!”

“What, James and the insidious Mr. Haven? Yes, nice boys, _both_ of them.”

“Please be nice about Charles, Benjy. You hardly know him.”

“Just like you hardly know James.”

Lily ran her fingers over her lips and wrinkled her nose when they came away sticky with lip balm. She rarely wore anything else on her lips. It was ridiculous of her, but the optimist in her demanded that she always expect to be kissed—and no one liked a kiss made greasy and disgusting with lip gloss.

Lily was so rarely kissed that she wondered why she even _bothered_.

Perhaps, just perhaps, all that would change the coming New Year when Charles Haven returned for second term.

Of course Lily leant towards Charles. He was handsome and rich and smart and popular and everything James was…and reliable and kind to others and a perfect candidate for a steady boyfriend. _Charles or James?_ _James or Charles?_

It was all Lily thought about anymore. Everyone knew what was going on—Charles Haven had asked Lily Evans out on a date. James Potter had been beside himself. Lily had said… _“Perhaps next term…”_ Lily Evans had not looked at James Potter once the entire rest of the lunch hour. Lily Evans’s gaze had been fixed firmly on the Ravenclaw table for the following three days, until everyone left for the Holidays. All that, and Lily Evans had still said _maybe later_ to Charles Haven in front of everyone. She kept it to herself that she had told him _yes_ before he got on the train. She was, if one wanted to be overly picky, off the market as of two days ago. She hadn’t told anyone else, though…

…because, of course, she couldn’t really cast away James. Not completely. Not ever. Not after all those nights getting to know him when they really supposed to be doing mindless and stupid tasks that the responsible Head Boy and Head Girl had to do. She didn’t want to push him out of her life by telling him that she and Charles…

The reasons were many: she had to work with him in her capacity as Head Girl; she had to see him every day in classes and at meals and in Gryffindor Tower; she had to admit that he was, for all intents and purposes, a fast friend (better than Benjy, without a question); she didn’t want to hurt him.

"It’s terribly conceited,” Lily said quietly. “Don’t you think?” She glanced up at Benjy, whose face was dark, in the shadows. The torchlight flickered over his face. He wasn’t especially handsome, but he was certainly entertaining. “To think that…dating Charles will hurt James. As if I have…the power to hurt him.”

“The truth doesn’t equal conceit, Lily.”

Lily rolled her eyes again. “Thanks for that gem. Spectacular advice. You should make that a career.”

Benjy rolled his eyes back and batted his lashes. “ _I’m Lily. I have two boys chasing my sought-after arse. I’m going to go get a drink on Christmas with my new friend Benjy to celebrate my birthday…”_ Benjy gave her a succession of questionable expressions that had Lily bent over double, laughing. She quickly accepted the invitation and they exited the library before they could get thrown out. Lily tucked her list into her pocket and Benjy hefted his bag over his shoulder as he led her out of the castle and into Hogsmeade. Technically, Benjy wasn’t supposed to be out of the castle (only seventh years had the privilege, and Lily was sure it would soon be taken away as the world grew more dangerous) For now, though, Lily set about enjoying her first day as an eighteen year old, her first day as an adult in the Muggle world, at least.

Sparkling, glowing, fantastic lights covered every lamppost in Hogsmeade. Christmas songs were playing from nowhere specific and were everywhere in the town at all times of the day. Ice crunched under their booted feet and the moon seemed ever brighter for its reflection off the snow covering, essentially, the entire part of the world that mattered to Lily. She and Benjy split the bill for their butterbeers and sat by the fire in the Three Broomsticks, not talking, as they had run out of topics of conversation. Evergreens, wreaths, and holly decorated the walls, ceiling, and mantle of the establishment. Decorated Christmas trees stood in every corner of the room, with a huge evergreen towering over the entire room from behind the well-stocked bar. Lily hummed along to the Christmas songs playing all around her and wriggled her socked toes by the fire.

“It’s half seven, Evans. We should go.”

Lily glanced over at Benjy, who had checked his watch at least three times in the past quarter hour. “All right,” she said easily. “Maybe my friends will want me around.”

Benjy frowned as they got up, put on their boots, and dragged their chairs back to the table they had stolen them from. “What, they wanted you gone before?”

“They were being ridiculously bitchy, so I left and sat in the library.”

“Sorry about that. Shall I pick one of them as my new flavor of the week?” Benjy sent her a sidelong glance and a killer smile.

Lily sighed and yanked her mittens on as they stepped out into the freezing December air, the bell above the door chiming out a high-pitched rendition of a familiar, but still impossible to place, Christmas carol. “I didn’t mean to insult you, you know.”

Benjy laughed out loud. “You didn’t. I just wanted you to feel bad and share your feelings.”

Lily’s mouth dropped open. “Prick!”

Benjy shrugged. “My nickname! Birds normally put _phenomenal_ in front of that, though.”

Lily said nothing to him until they reached the doors of the school, and then she felt compelled to spill her secret. “I said yes, you know.”

“To _Haven?_ ”Benjy said, stopping dead just inside the closing doors.

Lily nodded. “Yes. Before he left. Just before. Got a little kiss and everything.”

Benjy whistled and started walking again. “That’s interesting. Very…interesting.”

Lily frowned. She rushed to catch up with him. “Why? Why so interesting?”

“I thought you’d have chosen James, in the end.”

“It’s not the end _yet,_ ” replied Lily, without thinking.

Benjy, she could see, was biting back a grin.

“So there’s still time for you to end up with James. Gotcha.”

She blushed. “I’m so stupid! Of all people to say that to…”

“Your new best friend!” Benjy said. They rounded the corner and came upon the portrait of the Fat Lady. “The one who’s replacing your bitchy old ones!”

“ _Wassail_ ,” Lily said to the Fat Lady, who winked and swung open. Upon catching sight of the scene within the common room, Lily stopped and pulled out her wand; the common room was pitch black. Before she could light her wand, a fire erupted in the massive fireplace and every fifth, sixth, and seventh year Gryffindor (with some from other years thrown in) jumped out from a hiding places and screamed _“SURPRISE!”_ as the lights flickered on.

“ _Completely_ had you fooled, Evans!” Benjy Fenwick cried, clapping a frozen Lily on the back and exchanging a high five with a fellow sixth-year.

“Good job, Benjy,” Lily’s friend Emmeline said, drawing Lily into the crowd. “We figured you’d spent seventeen years being overshadowed by Christmas, so James suggested we overshadow Christmas with you this year!”

“James…” Lily said slowly, still staring, wide-eyed, at all the people.

“…Potter, Lily. James Potter. You may have met him before.”

Lily snapped back to attention. “Oh—yes, of course.” Something clicked into place. Is _this_ why you were being so horrible to me this morning?”

“Absolutely! Needed to get you out of here! James asked Benjy to keep you occupied. For some reason he trusts him.”

“Oh, yes, well…”

“Happy birthday!”

“Yeah, Evans—happy birthday!”

Lily smiled her thanks and felt a rush of elation. She hadn’t heard the words “Happy Christmas” since gift exchange that morning. People normally forgot her birthday, even thought it was on such a memorable day. She accepted another exuberant happy birthday and started to give out hugs in response. She only hesitated when she came to James, who fixed her with a cold eye and gave her an even colder _happy birthday._ She threw her arms around him despite this and he hugged her loosely.

Lily caught Benjy’s eye and she just _knew_ he had told James about Charles. She wanted to say something to him, but Emmeline dragged her away.

“That was weird,” Emmeline said.

“What?”

“James. Being so quiet when he planned this whole thing. He was really excited right before you walked in.”

“Oh, well—you know…”

Emmeline didn’t hear her, and she didn’t bring it up again. Lily was extremely grateful. She and Emmeline parted ways at some point—some time after this, the party was in full swing and Lily was still rather worried about James’s apparent indifference. She turned to leave from a conversation with her roommates and came face to face with him; she was simultaneously terrified and exhilarated by the steely resolve in his eyes. He was holding a large bottle filled with viciously red liquid and two ( _two?!)_ shot glasses.

“Come on,” he said softly, his eyes focused only on her—she could see his eyes clearly, even though the firelight was glinting on his lenses. In that moment the smell of fresh pine invaded every one of Lily’s senses—she inhaled deeply and he gave her a slight smile. “I trimmed the tree by myself,” he whispered, leaning in. “Now can we please go somewhere a little more private?”

_How_ could he be so brazen? How could he be so open about his feelings?

“It’s my party, Potter!”

“They’re fine without you.” James tipped his full bottle from side to side. “Come on.”

“I don’t drink.”

“You don’t do _anything_ naughty,” James said good-naturedly.

“Potter…”

“Evans…”

James held up a hand. “Haven’ll never find out about this. I swear.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “He’s got nothing to do with this, you know. Sitting down in private with you and having a few drinks isn’t considered cheating.”

“ _I_ know that. Do _you_ know that? Let’s test it out, shall we?”

Lily knew she should say no, but the challenge in his words and voice and stance was too much to ignore. She didn’t have any moral objections against drinking—she simply didn’t think she’d enjoy alcohol very much. Getting drunk and stupid really didn’t appeal to her. She glanced around and saw that very few people were watching them—not that anyone was _watching_ them, but several people looked their way once and again.

James dangled the bottle in front of her again. Lily made a decision—she was going to do this. It couldn’t be _that_ hard to stay in control after consuming a little alcohol. Rest assured, she knew letting James Potter introduce her to it—Head Boy though he might be—was a bad idea. Yet…it was Christmas. People behaved strangely on Christmas all the time. Eighteen years ago one young woman went into labor on Christmas day and…voilá: one Lily Evans, notorious optimist!

Lily led James over to a secluded corner of the common room—she couldn’t imagine _really_ being in private with him and that bottle in his hands. He muttered “ _Accio_ _!”_ and a tiny table zoomed over to them, narrowly missing a couple leaning against each other and swaying to the loud Christmas and birthday songs playing in the room. Lily and James each slid into a plush armchair. Lily sat leaning forward, her fingertips drumming on the table surface, one eyebrow raised.

“Don’t give me that _look,_ ” James said, smiling. He set the bottle down with a _thunk_ _!_ and raised one eyebrow back.

“I’m not giving you a _look!_ ”

“You are giving him a _look_ ,” Sirius Black stated, appearing quite suddenly before them. “What’s this?”

“I’m deflowering Lily,” James said; he looked up at Sirius. “Why? Something up?”

Sirius didn’t bother to answer the question. “Deflowering? Lily needs no deflowering. She’s a regular tart under that squeaky clean image. Now are you going to pour that out or are you going to waste it?”

“This is kind of a minus-Sirius moment,” James said after a pause.

Sirius rolled his eyes. “I knew _that_.” He glanced toward Remus. “Oi! Moony! No dice!” He walked away without another word. When Lily looked back at James, he was filling the two shot glasses. He set one before Lily. The vivid red drink was deep and dark and somehow, it reminded Lily that this was Christmas. It was strange for _such_ a red to remind her of Christmas, but it truly did.

“Drink up, Lily.”

“It’s not that strong, is it?”

“No.”

Lily smiled. “Liar.”

“Don’t flirt. It’s unlike you.”

Lily’s mouth dropped open. “You—that’s _such_ a lie! I flirt all the time.”

James nodded. “Not with _me._ ”

Lily shook her head. “You’re ridiculous. You don’t _let_ me flirt with you. You shut me down every time I even try—”

James picked up his shot glass, looked past her head, and _downed_ it. Lily watched in ( _almost)_ awe. He really _downed_ it. He didn’t flinch or pause or splutter—he just poured it into his mouth and swallowed without making a single sound.

He looked _manly_ doing that.

“Okay,” Lily said. She copied him, holding the glass near her lips, pouring it down her throat, and swallowing hard. She almost spat it out but the look on James’s face stopped her.

“ _Oh…my…GOD!”_

James erupted into laughter as Lily choked on her somewhere around five million proof shot of whiskey. Remus Lupin caught her eye and clapped his hands together gently. Lily held up a hand to acknowledge him and James spun about in his seat to see who she was waving at while she was doubled over with her mouth, throat, stomach, and—really, her entire existence _on bloody fire._

“Liar!” Lily rasped, drawing his attention back to her.

“Well, I didn’t say you were _wrong_. This is strong stuff. Strongest.”

“You choose to _devirginize_ me with the strongest type of alcohol you _possess?_ ”

James paused.

Lily stared at him in disbelief. She leaned across the table (she may have overbalanced and almost toppled off her chair, but she may have braced herself on the table with her hands and snatched the bottle away from him) and then poured herself one _perfect_ shot. She picked up the glass, raised it as a toast to him, and sent another flaming river of alcohol down her throat.

“Lily…”

“Don’t _ever_ use that tone with me,” Lily said archly, deliberately filling her glass again. Three shots down—she was hardly feeling anything. She told him so.

“Just hold on—you’ve never drank before, Lily—three shots _now_ sends me to the plaster factory—”

“Happy birthday,” Lily said imbibing the fourth shot, “to me. Think I can do eighteen of these? Much better than your paltry three, I’d say.”

James tried to take the bottle from her. “Lily—I know you’re stupid and all, but eighteen shots of this will _kill you_. It’s called alcohol poisoning.”

Lily waved the words away.

**………………………………….**

Thirty minutes later Lily was looking a bit ragged around the edges and James stealthily began to move his chair closer to the table between them. She hadn’t had another shot but James was quite sure she was about to pour a fifth, drink it, and then promptly begin spewing everywhere. In one quick motion, he wrenched the bottle from her grasp. Some of the contents spilled onto the table but they both ignored it. He held it high above her head and Lily stumbled off her chair to get it from him. “Give—that—here! James!”

James just raised his arm higher and titled his body back. To his immense satisfaction, Lily put one hand on his shoulder and tried to yank his arm down, only succeeding in pressing her chest up against James.

“Er, Lily…” he said quietly, trying to suppress a laugh.

“They’re just breasts, you buffoon! Get over it and give me that bottle. _Now._ ”

“Oh no. I don’t think so.”

Lily stopped with no warning and titled her face up. James was hit with a mad sense of longing as he looked at her bright eyes. “James…” she wheedled.

“Absolutely not,” James replied, slipping one arm around her waist. Lily pursed her lips.

“ _What_ are you doing, Potter?”

“Sorry—thought this can’t be considered cheating.” He twisted around quickly and held her far away and he set the bottle down, picked up the cap, and screwed it back on. “Wormtail!”

Peter glanced up from his conversation with Remus. “What?”

“Can you take this?”

“Noooooo!” Lily squealed, reaching across James to get at the bottle. James jerked her back and Peter hurried forward to take the bottle away. Lily watched it go with a forlorn expression. She turned back to James and grinned. “That wasn’t very nice.”

James rolled his eyes. “Spectacular. An easy drunk.”

“I am _not_ easy!” Lily gasped, smacking him in the chest. James smiled faintly; he knew hitting was a good thing.

“Really? Are you hard then?”

“No, you stupid moron. _You_ get hard. Then you find the _easy_ girls.”

James laughed.

Lily pouted.

“Okay—Lily, now that you’ve gotten drunk—”

Lily snorted and tried to pull out of his arms (she had, James noticed, been quite comfortable before), twisting and writhing and pushing against him. It was a bit of a turn on.

With that thought, James abruptly let her go. Lily stumbled back and almost fell to the ground—she caught herself on a chair, instead. “ _Jaaaaaaames_ _!”_ she said reproachfully. “That wasn’t _nice_.”

“Have fun with that, mate,” Sirius called across the room. Several people looked over. James waved nervously and grabbed Lily’s arm.

“Come on.”

Lily wrenched her arm from his grip and giggled. “You can’t tell me what to do! You’re not my _boy_ friend or anything!”

James bit his tongue. “Well I know _that._ ”

Lily clapped her hands together. “Everyone knows that.” She giggled again. “But you still did all _this_ for me. That’s _so_ nice of you James.” She put both her hands over her mouth and another giggle escaped her.

James slowly sank down into his chair. “Tease.”

“You’re so mean,” Lily accused. She pouted and skipped over to his chair. She fell on top of him with a sigh and James grunted.

“Okay, Lily,” he said gently, trying not to startle her.

“Okaaay what?” she asked. “Ohmygod!” she finally squealed. “Look! Emmeline’s talking to Jackie.” She sat up and nearly killed James’s chances of procreating as she turned to face him and brought her face close to his. “They _hate_ each other, you know?”

James decided not to mention that with her hands on each arm rest and her torso bent forward like that, he could see straight down her shirt and had a perfect view of the tiny, dark mole on the inside of her left breast. James squeezed his eyes shut.

“Hey, birthday girl! You wanna play some chess?”

“Absol _lute_ ly!” Lily said, jumping up. James winced as she pushed her body off the chair with her hands against his thighs. “Lead the way!”

It was Sirius asking. James tried to protest, but Lily whipped around and place three fingers clumsily over his lips. “ _No,_ ” she ordered. “I want to play chess!”

James couldn’t speak—he could only look up at her, halted by the touch of her fingertips against his mouth.

He must have unsettled her, because she drew her fingers back and cradled her one hand in the other as if it hurt. She bit her lip and then flew over to Sirius, who was setting up a game of chess. James watched as Lily knocked over a couple of her chess pieces and scrambled around on the floor, trying to pick them up. James got up and sneaked up behind Sirius, who was avidly eyeing Lily’s arse as is waggled in front of his eyes.

James cleared his throat.

Sirius jumped and looked back at James. “Sorry, mate. Just…er…you know.”

“She’s drunk off her—she’s completely plastered, mate. She’s got no idea what she’s doing.”

“Yeah, but the view’s—” Sirius stopped talking immediately as James narrowed his eyes. “Okay—whoa, sorry, mate—put that away, come on now…” Sirius laughed nervously, eyeing James’s wand.

“Up. Now.”

Sirius narrowed his own eyes to match James’s. “Hey—watch it, Prongs. It’s not like she cares about you. You just told me she’s going out with damn Haven—”

“Shut up, Sirius—”

“Got it!” Lily cried, grabbing the last wayward chess piece and sitting up on her knees; she knocked her head on the wobbly table and her face scrunched up in pain. “Ouch.”

She failed to notice that she’d jostled the table and the entire rest of the chess board was on the floor.

Sirius grinned. “You okay, Evans?”

“I’m _not_ drunk!” Lily giggled.

Sirius gathered up the rest of the chess pieces with a nifty spell and packed the board away. “Guess chess is out of the question.”

“I wanted to play!”

“You, Miss Evans, are completely and totally gone.”

“I am—oof!” Lily fell over and laughed insanely as she sprawled over a pillow someone had kicked on the floor.

“She’s about to fall out of that shirt, James,” Sirius said wistfully.

James hit Sirius much harder than was necessary and hurried forward to pick Lily up off the floor. He knelt beside her head.

“James…I missed you! Where’d you go?”

They were garnering stares from the other students. James ignored them. Lily rolled over on the floor and put her head in James lap, throwing one of her arms across his thighs. She pressed her mouth against his trousers and the warmth of her breath seeped through to his skin. A din began to rise around James as people began saying goodnight to each other.

“James,” Lily moaned her head dropping to the side, her eyelids drooping. She muttered something and James bent down to hear her. It wasn’t his fault if his hands slid effortlessly into her hair and his lips grazed her forehead.

“Why didn’t you ask me out?” Lily whimpered. She dug her nails into his leg.

James didn’t answer her. He pressed a kiss to her temple.

“You’re such a coward,” Lily murmured, looking up at him, upside down. “I gave you so many chances.” She squeezed her eyes shut and tears leaked out from the corners, sliding down her temples and into her hair. “So many chances…”

James hesitated. Perhaps she… “You wanna go up to my room? A couple charms’ll make it worth your while. I promise.”

Lily’s eyes opened and she looked up at him with that same piercing, bright and teary gaze. “Which ones?” She wiped away a couple tears and sniffled.

James pushed her hair back where it was stuck to her face with tears.

“One to make everything quiet…”

“And a Contraceptive Charm,” Lily suggested, struggling to get up off the floor so she could face him.

James caught his breath—she _couldn’t_ mean…but she did! The look on her face was unmistakable and determined and deceitful and lovely all at once.

“That’s taking advantage of a—a person under the…under the influence of—”

Lily laughed and her fingers trailed up his cloak to rest on his shoulder. “Like I care.” She did that crazy giggling thing again. James wanted to get a better look at that mole down her shirt.

“Shit,” he said quietly, looking around frantically. He needed someone to come and talk him out of this. “Shit.”

“Potty mouth. Potty mouth Potter!” Lily said, her fingers tightening on his shoulder. It was that little sensation—her fingers closing around his shoulder, that sent the familiar jolt through James’s system.

“You’re going to _hate_ me tomorrow,” he muttered, getting up and holding out a hand to help her up.

“Hate you? I could never hate you! James, you’re such a stupid-head. Really. Honestly. Stupidy-stoooopid!”

“This is cheating,” said James, as Lily looped an arm around his shoulders and he wrapped his around her waist to keep her from falling to the floor in messy heap of alcohol-scented breath and bloodshot eyes and sexy, crazy hair. He glanced around to make sure no one saw them. No one was really looking at them.

“Cheating on Charles!” Lily sang under her breath. “Oh, Charles! No one really cares about him, you know. Everyone knows you’re just a baby and I’m waiting around for you. I can always tells Charles no.”

“You already _said_ yes,” James corrected through gritted teeth, trying to get her to walk up the stairs and not trip up them, as she was trying to do.

“I figured I’d make the best of a stupidly daft situation.” Lily’s head dropped against his shoulder. “But now I’ve just decided to skip ahead of this waiting around bit and get to the fairytale ending.”

“The ending?”

“The _ending_ ,” Lily said slowly, as if _he_ were the one likely to misunderstand on this Christmas evening. “When I end up with your sorry arse.”

James’s throat was suspiciously tight. He kicked open the door to his room and heaved Lily onto his bed. She kicked off her shoes and lay spread-eagled, staring up at the ceiling with a little smile on her face.

“What?” said James hoarsely, looking her over.

“What what?”

“Why the smile?”

“The girl’s _always_ smiling during the fairytale ending.”

“This isn’t a fairytale,” James said, slipping out of his own shoes and, after careful consideration of what might happen, his socks.

“Isn’t it?” Lily began to unbutton her shirt. James watched her struggle.

“If you can’t manage unbutton your own shirt, Lily, you shouldn’t have sex.”

“But I _want_ to,” Lily whined. “Here—you can take it off for me.”

“I wish,” James said mournfully, fully disappointed in himself. She was really offering herself up to him here. He should take her up on it.

But then he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. He knew Lily wasn’t a virgin. But that still didn’t make it okay to…

“Oh, fuck,” Lily said plaintively. “Fucky fucky fuck. I messed up, James!”

“Did you, now?”

“ _Yes_. Come sit here. Come on, I won’t bite.” She patted the bed beside her leg and sat up.

James obliged.

“We haven’t reached the ending yet, you duffer! You didn’t do that thing.”

“The thing.”

Lily nodded, her eyes wide. “Yes,” she said seriously. “The _thing_. Cheating on Charles did it. Haven’t you the balls to do the same?”

“So I need to do this _thing_ in order to get to the ending. Where you’re supposed to smile.”

Lily waved her hand crossly. “I’ll get to that at the—at the—at the end!”

James sighed. “Will you go out with me?”

“With oomph, James!”

“You made me _say_ it,” James said. “That should be enough.”

Lily copied him with a sigh. “ _Fine_.”

“Hey, hey—where’s my smile?”” James pushed some hair away from her face.

“For the end, you mean?”

“Yeah. For the end.”

Lily crossed her legs, uncrossed them, crossed them again, and tilted her head back.

“Let’s review how we got here. So you got me all drunk for the first time.”

James nodded.

“That was quite responsible of you, you know.” Lily said this rather matter-of-factly. “Some Head Boy you are. I trusted you!”

James said nothing but he bit back a grin.

“And then you asked me out. Finally. Remind me to tell Charles he’s out.”

“Out?”

“Completelytotallydefinitelyout!” Lily said in a rush. She smiled at James, her head tilted sideways, and he had to catch his breath.

“And then we get to the ending,” James managed.

“Ah, yes,” Lily said. “And that’s where Lily messed up.”

“ _Did_ Lily mess up there?”

“Yes she did! There’s no smiling going on in the fairytale ending.”

James waited.

“There’s _kissing_!”

James let a beat go by. “Kissing.”

“Yes, you daft boy. A _kiss!_ What are you waiting for?”

James tried to keep his mouth shut, but he just _couldn’t._ “One thing.”

“Yes?” said Lily impatiently, drumming her fingers on the coverlet.

“Do you think that…sometime soon I can—can I get a better look at that mole on your chest?”

James waited as Lily stared at him, her eyebrows drawn together. She leaned forward and nearly gave James a heart attack with her answer.

“Happy Christmas, Mr. Potter.”

And then she kissed him.


End file.
